AS THE STATE DEALS WITH DROUGHT CONDITIONS THAT HAVEN'T BEEN SEEN IN YEARS.. THE DROUGHT AND WATER WERE HOT TOPICS AS LEADERS FROM AROUND THE STATE GATHER IN MONTEREY FOR A WEEK LONG CONFERENCE.. ACTION NEWS REPORTER FELIX CORTEZ IS LIVE IN MONTEREY WITH TONIGHT'S TOP STORY. ONE OF THOSE NEW SOURCES BEING EXPLORED IS TURNING TREATED SEWAGE INTO DRINKING WATER.. IT'S NOT A NEW IDEA.. BUT THE DROUGHT CLEARLY PUSHING IT TO THE FOREFRONT.. it may sound like a dirty idea.. But treated sewage water is already being used as a source of water but just not for drinking.. the treated water is used to irrigate golf courses and parks.. But now water districts in san diego and santa clara county are experimenting with the idea of putting the treated water through another filtering process and making it safe to drink.. It has it's challenges.. Cost and public perception .. 56:51 the question is is the water safe and in our demonstration project in san diego through monitoring of the water quality demonstrated the water is safe its very high quality it meets all federal and state drinking standards :03 exceeds all those standards :04 the san diego water manager said orange county is already doing it.. And he says such a treatment plant could provide up to 30 percent of that city's water supply.. 58:31 well that 30 percent means that much of a reduction on reliance of other sources of water for san diego that's really important because we very reliant on imported water from outside san diego region :43 that water project just one of many new water sources being talked about at week long water conference in monterey.. The drought no doubt highlighting the need for new water sources .. Cal-am talked about it's desalination plant it hopes to get approval for.. Simpler things that homeowners could do were also highlighted like capturing rain water that spills out of gutters.. bruce :30 catching rain water and using it :32 or storm water that would just normally run off a street and into the river or something like that or reusing water reclamation of water for irrigation or flushing toilets now we need to exploit all of those :48 BUT AGAIN THESE ARE LONG TERM SOLUTIONS.. THE SHORT TERM SOLUTION TO OUR DROUGHT.. IS WATER CONSERVATION.. AND THAT'S SOMETHING EVERYBODY CAN DO.. EVERYDAY.. THE WATER CONFERENCE CONTINUES TOMORROW.. AND WILL INCLUDE A TOUR OF THE SAN CLEMENTE DAM... WHERE WORK IS CURRENTLY UNDERWAY TO REMOVE THE DAM.###